The Latter Is Perhaps More
In The Hands Of Merchants And Men In Trade Than Of Any Other Class;
And Even The Highest Seats Of Political Greatness Are More Open With
Us To The World At Large Than They Seem To Be In The States To Any
That Are Not Lawyers.
Since the days of Washington every President
of the United States has, I think, been a lawyer, excepting General
Taylor.
Other Presidents have been generals, but then they have
also been lawyers. General Jackson was a successful lawyer. Almost
all the leading politicians of the present day are lawyers. Seward,
Cameron, Welles, Stanton, Chase, Sumner, Crittenden, Harris,
Fessenden, are all lawyers. Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Cass were
lawyers. Hamilton and Jay were lawyers. Any man with an ambition
to enter upon public life becomes a lawyer as a matter of course.
It seems as though a study and practice of the law were necessary
ingredients in a man's preparation for political life. I have no
doubt that a very large proportion of both houses of legislature
would be found to consist of lawyers. I do not remember that I know
of the circumstance of more than one Senator who is not a lawyer.
Lawyers form the ruling class in America, as the landowners do with
us. With us that ruling class is the wealthiest class; but this is
not so in the States. It might be wished that it were so.
The great and ever-present difference between the National or
Federal affairs of the United States government and the affairs of
the government of each individual State, should be borne in mind at
all times by those who desire to understand the political position
of the States. Till this be realized no one can have any correct
idea of the bearings of politics in that country. As a matter of
course we in England have been inclined to regard the government and
Congress of Washington as paramount throughout the States, in the
same way that the government of Downing Street and the Parliament of
Westminster are paramount through the British isles. Such a mistake
is natural; but not the less would it be a fatal bar to any correct
understanding of the Constitution of the United States. The
National and State governments are independent of each other, and so
also are the National and State tribunals. Each of these separate
tribunals has its own judicature, its own judges, its own courts,
and its own functions. Nor can the supreme tribunal at Washington
exercise any authority over the proceedings of the courts in the
different States, or influence the decision of their judges. For
not only are the National judges and State judges independent of
each other, but the laws in accordance with which they are bound to
act may be essentially different. The two tribunals - those of the
nation and of the State - are independent and final in their several
spheres. On a matter of State jurisprudence no appeal lies from the
supreme tribunal of New York or Massachusetts to the supreme
tribunal of the nation at Washington.
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